If you are one of those artists who believe they never should pay for interviews, you should reconsider. When a publication interviews you for free, you answer questions that serve the interests of their target market. You do not control the content. I agree that free publicity and fresh internet real estate are all good things. However, there are many advantages to paying a professional to produce a featured interview or post, because you can control the questions, answers and many aspects of promotion. Get Asked the Right Interview Questions First, decide why you want to be interviewed. There are many reasons why artists want to be interviewed and tell their stories. Do you want to be interviewed because you just released a new song or film or book? Are you going on tour? Are you launching a crowdsourcing campaign? Are you looking for management or to beef up your electronic press kit (EPK)? Answering the why not only influences what questions you want to be asked, but also what order you want the interviewer to ask them. People have short attention spans, so make sure the interviewer asks you the most important questions first. Next, decide who you want to target. How you choose to answer your interview questions can vary widely, depending on your target audience. For example, you may want to provide short answers if you are talking to new fans, but go more in-depth if you are talking to die-hard fans. You may want to use different language and behave more professionally if you are answering questions to for potential managers. Because you know the questions you’ll be asked in advance, you can prepare your answers, rehearse for your interview and give your audience a fabulous performance. Take Charge of Interview Promotion...
Straw ~ To A Higher Place
posted by Cynthia Kahn
Danish country rock band Straw is changing the face of country music in Denmark. Straw is a family affair. Henriette and Carsten Fabricius are the heart of the band. The two write, record and perform with their three lovely daughters Nellie, Sally and Denise. Straw’s new hit single and video To A Higher Place has attracted a global audience. The song is wonderful and the video visuals are amazing. Henriette explained what inspired the song: “We wrote the song at our place in Sweden. We spent time with our old friends, good friends. When Carsten played his guitar, the motion and mood was very good and the words just came out. It’s a love song. It’s about the good things in life, going for a walk and holding hands. It’s about being aware of what you have. It’s a positive song.” As I watched some of Straw’s older songs and videos, I came across the video for I Hope. I got goose bumps as I watch and listened. I just had to know more about this song. Carsten told me: “Henriette wrote the words, but it’s definitely about me. I had some very bad times and some very bad habits. After a while, I realized that I had to make some changes. This song is about making changes in your life. You have to show that you are making changes, and everyone has to see those changes. We have to accept that we are changing all the time, and we have to give each other new hope.” All three girls in the Straw family sing. When they sing together, they form a choir, a very special sound. Nellie is the youngest, and she sings and plays piano and guitar. Carsten and Nellie plan to play guitar together on an upcoming record. Sally is in the middle. She sings, plays piano and writes songs to the piano. The band plans to include more piano parts as Straw begins to record more of Sally’s music. Denise is the oldest. Everyone laughed when it was Denise’s turn, because she admits to not playing piano or guitar very well. She sings and writes songs too. Denise’s songs are lighter, and Sally’s songs are more melancholy. Henriette is the mom. She sings and writes most of the lyrics together with her husband Carsten. The two write music together. Henriette plays a little guitar, but not on stage. Carsten is Straw’s guitar-player. Straw tours with 3 of the Danish top musicians: Helge Solberg (bass), Jakob Storm (drums) and Miki Skjold and Jens Runge (guitars). How does Straw keep family harmony both in and out of the studio? Henriette laughed, “We don’t!” Denise explained: “We give each other space. It’s OK to be angry, and it’s OK to be sad and cry, and it’s OK to be happy. Everything is allowed. We are honest. There was a time, before Straw, when it was a problem. Then, we made the changes that we sang about in the song I Hope. We have to talk to each other and listen, listen a lot. And show love.” I was surprised to learn that there are country bands in Denmark. Henrietta told me: “It’s a difficult question, because we all don’t agree on the topic of country music.” Denise elaborated: “When you use the word country to describe music in Denmark, Danish people don’t know what it is. They think the song Jolene is the only country song. You don’t think Alison Krauss when you talk about country music in Denmark.” Henriette laughed: “They listen to it, but they don’t know what it is.” Danish people would describe Straw’s music as pop with country flair. The family credits a wide range of musicians that influence their music, including the Eagles, Alison Krauss, Gabrielle Aplin, Taylor Swift, Whitney Houston and Linkin Park. What advice does Straw have for other family bands trying to make...
Obaid ~ Prahelika 1 and Prahelika 2...
posted by Cynthia Kahn
Hi, I am Obaid, a Bangladesh-based singer/songwriter/musician. My music can be classified as Alt-Rock-Indie-Pop. I recently released my debut double albums titled Prahelika-1 & Prahelika-2, which mean Enigma & Progress. Both albums contain a total of 15 of my original songs. These are acoustic guitar-based studio double albums, the first ever attempt by a solo artist in the history of Bangladesh’s music. All the music was written, tuned, composed, sang and produced by me. I wrote all the lyrics. I also played all the instruments that went into making my albums, including rhythm, lead and bass guitars, drums and percussion. In addition to self-producing these albums, I am also responsible for the artwork as well. All the inside illustrations of the albums, including the cover art for both albums, were painted by me. The songs speak to my inner-spiritual quests and experiences, my strengths, my limitations and my attempts at finding peace and serenity within my own self in the vicinity of this majestic Universe. The lyrics as well as the melody of the songs are my own take and understanding of life in general: the struggles, ambitions, dreams, the longing for positivism and the efforts to better myself as an individual by fighting off all sorts of negativity and pessimism. I hope that listeners can easily identify themselves with these earthly and soothing songs. Some other key characteristics of my music are that they are very confessional, absolutely sincere and very serious. I would like to think that Prahelika-1 & Prahelika-2 are great works of music. As far as my musical inspirations are concerned, I am mostly influenced by 80’s hard rock as well as the mainstream pop of that musically wonderful era. Music from the early 90’s grunge and alternative movement and rock music...
Ruby Modine ~ Dream Big
posted by Cynthia Kahn
If I had to choose one word to describe Ruby Modine that word would be adorable. She’s animated, energetic and passionate about art. During our interview, we discovered that our creative processes often start with painting. I’d love to spend the day painting with her! Ruby Modine recently released two songs, Tell Me a Story and Radio, with demos available on SoundCloud. Ruby’s sound is very original. She credits her influences to Amy Winehouse, Joan Jett and Taylor Momsen from the group The Pretty Reckless. She has yet to record a song in her genre, which is hard rock and metal. Her next song with her newly formed band Your Wyldest Dream will be much harder and louder, so she’s really excited. Ruby’s musical career began with story writing in elementary school. She’s visual, so her process starts with writing what she visualizes down on paper. Ruby also paints and draws what she sees in her mind. She writes stories too. All her creative outlets combine into inspirations for her songs. “It’s a long process, but I really do like it, because it really makes me think, it really makes me get all of the emotions that I’m thinking about out on paper.” Acting is Ruby’s first passion and it’s exciting to see her acting career really taking off. She’s currently working on four projects: Memoria, Violence and Women, Julia and a film in pre-production called The Bagman. She begins filming Memoria in October. The film is based on James Franco’s book Palo Alto and will be directed by Nina Ljeti. This will be her second film by James Franco. It’s a cool coming-of-age story about teenagers roaming around California, skateboarding, partying and falling in love. Ruby describes Violence and Women as incredible. It’s a dark comedy feature film directed by Chad Ostrom that begins shooting in New York in March 2014. It’s grim, gory and amazing. I’m intrigued. The Bagman is an animated film Directed by Christopher Stoudt. They’ve created a Ruby cartoon character, which is “really, really rad.” Julia is a short film directed by her father, Matthew Modine, another Amused Now featured artist, and Leon Vitale. When I asked Ruby what it’s like to work for a parent, she told me, “Honestly, it’s amazing!” She describes it like this, “you have a relationship with your parents, but when you break that boundary and go into work mode, that’s no longer present. You’re listening more for the advice that they’re giving you. My father has always been a very big mentor for me.” They advise each other and have cultivated a fabulous give-and-take working relationship. Although Ruby has a social media presence, she says that “I’m not really into social networking,” mainly because she had some prior bad experiences with Facebook. She has a lot of fun on Twitter as @rubymodine, meeting new people (like me) and promoting music and bands that she loves. Ruby has a website that she keeps up-to-date. Plus, she recently opened an Instagram account, launched between our video interview and posting of this article. Ruby is also in the process of creating a new Facebook page and giving that another try. Ruby enjoys talking to everybody. “A lot of people say you’re supposed to use social networking to talk to specific people, but I think you should talk to everybody. That’s why I like promoting myself.” Ruby’s advice to young artists: hard work. “There are days that you cry because the dream that you want is taking so long, but it really does come from hard work. You have to wake up every day and have a new goal. Seriously, you get what you put in. My advice is to have a dream and work towards it and never give up. Stay as positive as you can.” It’s been fabulous getting to know you Ruby. To watch the complete video interview on the Amused Now YouTube...
Lee Perreira ~ Melodies for Marie...
posted by Cynthia Kahn
Lee Perreira and I met on Facebook through our mutual friend and fan, Denise Barlow. I was moved by his desire to create an EP that honors his grandmother called Melodies for Marie. To raise the funds to finish the EP, Lee launched a campaign on PIedgeMusic. As I followed his campaign, I became even more excited about his cause and reached out to help. The Amused Now Blog is about artists helping artists, so I’m promoting Lee Perreira as our Featured Artist to give him a boost on this last week of his fundraising campaign. Lee is extremely busy during this final stretch, so we decided to go with a written interview. Cynthia: I watched your RAW video. Nice bio video. You describe your music as bluesy, jazzy and rock. Who are your biggest influencers? Lee: My biggest influences really range. I grew up with hair metal and classical music. Then Nirvana and Grunge hit and that was my music. Then, I started playing guitar and gravitated to Classic Rock and Blues. But now I really love and am influenced by the musicians and bands I’ve been playing with like Decker and Banana Gun, which are bands out here in AZ. Cynthia: You recently started a solo career after fronting the band Isle of Essence, which opened for some well-known bands. What prompted your decision? Lee: Classic response coming… Creative differences. Lol. It is what it is. I love those guys and I loved what we did together. We all still talk and see each other at some level. Nothing but respect for those guys and I wish them the best. Cynthia: Your first solo release is called Melodies for Marie, named for your grandmother. I listened to the single Red Water Calling. I love...
Atomic Honey – Just Press Play...
posted by Cynthia Kahn
Last week, I had the opportunity to interview KeV Atomic, the lead for the band Atomic Honey. Here at Amused Now headquarters, we were super excited, because we’ve been following Atomic Honey for the last year and a half. The band has released a wide range of music, which is why they appeal to a wide audience. With David Bowie is a major influence, how can they go wrong? Always busy producing new songs, Atomic Honey recently released a new album called “Operation: Moondust” and a new EP called “Just Press Play.” KeV is a big literature fan. He describes “Operation: Moondust” as a mellow journey, where they convey stories through songwriting. After the album released, they made “Just Press Play” for their hard rock fans. We asked KeV how he gets his message out to his fans. Twitter is his social media vehicle of choice. He likes that Twitter allows for open dialog. According to KeV, Twitter is “like a never-ending interview.” He does not like Facebook, because he feels it is not setup well for responding to posts. KeV believes the standards for artists have changed. It’s a lot more than just making music. Fans expect to interact with their favorite artists. KeV uses Twitmusic to post songs for his most dedicated fans. These may be concept songs that never make it into an album. He uses Twitmusic to “let people know where we’re at musically at any given time” and to keep people interested between albums. Atomic Honey has albums on iTunes, Amazon, ReverbNation and CD Baby. KeV doesn’t recommend one site over any other. His idea is to “flood the internet, then roll with as much music as you can.” He sees a lot of artists trying to promote the...
Sam Wesst ~ Baby You’re the Best...
posted by Cynthia Kahn
“Baby you’re the best.” These lyrics play at the end of my recent interview with Sam Wesst. I know I’ll be singing those words to his song “Six O’Clock in the Morning” when the world discovers, as I already have, that he is a substantial new musical and writing talent. This song could receive a Grammy. That’s all I could think of as I finished watching the edited version of my interview with Sam. Sam is a humble, powerful, talented soul who reminded me of John Denver when he sang “Cotton Jenny” and made me tear up when he told her story on our video interview. This is the type of man the world does not have enough of. Men like my husband, solid, caring and true. If I know anything — and I believe in my instincts — Sam Wesst will soon be very well known. He wants be a part of the Amused Now e-commerce website when it launches and we’re delighted! His album of 9 songs, picked first by him and then approved by Tate Publishing, is being cut in June for a fall release. Members from Reba McIntyre’s band will be accompanying. He’s staying humble about it, but I doubt Tate pulls out the stops for every artist they work with. Sam’s book, Wounded Warriors is in Barnes and Noble, on Amazon.com, on www.tatepublishing.com and is soon to be on www.samwesst.com. It is about a group of covert soldiers in Vietnam, not owned by the army or the country they serve. When they return, one of them comes back with evidence of their secret mission in Nam. They gather in a pack on motorcycles and ride to a remote location called Desert Rose. There they must fight to protect the...
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